A Confession and possibly I need help

[DracoM]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gnhw9

Brilliantly talented ensemble performs / sings some of my favourite music - partic the Britten
BUT
I cannot make myself listen.
BECAUSE
I really cannot abide the voice of the solo tenor. I have tried, I have tried so hard over many years, but.........

How is it that one person can revere and another cannot abide the same artist?
Same sounds presumably, fine music, fine brain of artist working the music, but...............

I see the names Renee Fleming, Placido Domingo for example, and for me, that is when I turn off.

Physiologically / emotionally why do people react so differently to the same voice?

[french frank]

Well, Peter Pears? … (had to swiftly check you didn't mean him).

[Flosshilde]

Can't stand Bostridge either. His sepulchral voice is fine for some things, but not for much. (in my opinion). I don't understand the adulation.
Peter Pears has an equally, if not more, idiosyncratic voice but it never sounds wrong.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can't stand Bostridge either. His sepulchral voice is fine for some things, but not for much. (in my opinion). I don't understand the adulation.

- nor I.

Peter Pears has an equally, if not more, idiosyncratic voice but it never sounds wrong.

More powerful and greater range and depth of colour: Bostridge began his career with a voice that sounded like a very watery water colour - these days it sounds as if it's been left in bright sunshine for far too long.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Having said that, these are extraordinarily personal things - more so than with instrumentalists or even conductors it's often seemed to me. This morning I caught Ferrier singing the second of the Kindertotenlieder - I'd just put the radio on and it happened to start as I was doing other things. It completely fixed my attention and literally took my breath away to hear it - as always with this singer. And yet, many esteemed Forumistas have expressed revulsion at what totally captivates me and makes me feel so grateful to be alive to hear.

[DracoM]

Much echoing my GUT reactions.
BUT
how is that we are all so differently attuned to varieties of excellence? As I suggested upthread, presumably the sounds being made are the same, but how do WE as listeners evolve in such a way as to find some voices very difficult to respond to enthusiastically? Mystifies me.

[Richard Tarleton]

Bostridge - me neither. Have had this conversation before with Mary C, and I tried to describe the exact quality in his voice I disliked. I have the same problem with another currently esteemed English tenor, whose voice to my ear shares some of the same characteristics as Bostridge's (I heard IB in Serenade for THS live, early in his career, the first time I'd heard him, and even confused the two on the radio once or twice).

DF-D, Schwarzkopf, Sutherland, Callas....a number of great voices provoke extreme, opposite or merely widely differing reactions? Though in some cases we can at least agree on the objective characteristics which we like or dislike.

[Pianorak]

Well, Peter Pears? . . .

If only. I cannot abide his voice.

[EdgeleyRob]

If only. I cannot abide his voice.

And yet Britten never sounds quite right without it,to me anyway.

[Stanfordian]

Can't stand Bostridge either. His sepulchral voice is fine for some things, but not for much. (in my opinion). I don't understand the adulation.
Peter Pears has an equally, if not more, idiosyncratic voice but it never sounds wrong.

I agree! Bostridge does nothing for me. For me its all about his voice rather than what he's singing. Cecilia Bartoli is the same too although I love the Baroque music she mainly sings.

[cloughie]

And yet Britten never sounds quite right without it,to me anyway.

Britten vocal stuff rarely sounds right!

His orchestral stuff is great!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

DF-D is my problem. I can't put a finger on why I don't like his voice. There are many other singers I would rather not hear, but I feel I can justify my aversion in these other cases. But why DFD? I just don't know.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I'm no fan of Bostridge either & stay well clear of his recordings. I find his voice weedy and affected. When it comes to instrumentalists, I'm allergic to the clarinetist Michael Collins whose playing I find has a kind of smug satisfaction and self-importance about it and which really grates on me.

[BBMmk2]

That's the wonderful thing about being a human, DracoM! We are so different from each other, none of us are the same. some people will know of my dislike for the voices of Kathleen Ferrier and Maria Callas! They just make me cringe!

[DracoM]

I did NOT introduce this thread to bash Bostridge.
It's my puzzlement at how such instinctive likes and dislikes can form and persist, even when you know the performers are intelligent, consummate musicians. .